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I cleaned out SaltySupply when they closed. A year or two ago I talked with Premium Aquatics in Indianapolis and they were able to get them, but weren't willing to order any unless I wanted to buy the box of 12. Apparently they don't get requests for them very often.

Seeing this reminds me that I do miss this thread. Lots of inspiring pictures and some interesting information as well.

05-10-2015 03:53 PM

Overfloater

Unfortunately the 48" Red Sun has been discontinued as far as I can tell.

I am thinking more of Gertude Jekyll and say Piet Oudolf if you know who they are. Clumps instead of swaths or something. I am not sure what I am after really but I see something in those side views that I like a lot.

Are you related to Claude? I ran into that name the other day when reading about Penstemons.

Thanks, you justified the aesthetic you are interested in. Not always easy to do that.

I know of and am aware of those two. I tend to prefer more street paths dominate and then the clumps for transitions. With this hardscape, the focus is more on the streets, less on the clumps. So the hardscape defined much of what I've done here.

Clumps tend to be more the Dutch aesthetic with a few streets, but only a a limited number. I'm not so rigid in this view, like your prior comments, one could suggest "the clumping looks contrived" also.

Depends on how you do the styles and pull it off at the end that seems to matter. Adding some touches of moss, Riccardia, some aspects................that aid in transitions. Adding to the Dutch aesthetic a bit of the "Nature style" element to soften and mix.........

That becomes a bit tougher to do.

I mostly redo the tank, think about some new species and what might look best for a given shade or mix of plants. I try it out and then see if I like it.
If it feels good to me, then I stick with it.

I do not analyze much, if at all.
That sort of ruins it.
You can end up BSing yourself

10-01-2014 06:01 PM

Axelrodi202

Tom are the rasboras breeding in your tank?

10-01-2014 05:37 PM

BruceF

I am thinking more of Gertude Jekyll and say Piet Oudolf if you know who they are. Clumps instead of swaths or something. I am not sure what I am after really but I see something in those side views that I like a lot.

Are you related to Claude? I ran into that name the other day when reading about Penstemons.

I would say that most of the time this tank looks contrived but these last few pictures of the harlequins look quite "natural" at least in a gardening kind of way. Maybe it is just the angle but I like it much better.

Wide angle lens makes most tanks look much better in that regard, you have been conditioned to see that are the norm rather than the exception.
My goal has nothing to do with "Nature style" or natural look, it's a colorful loosely organized garden. The 70 Gallon is more nature style/natural, but even there, the other fish species I tried did not pop out enough, so the white neons were used instead.
The Rasboras do work nicely in the 120 Gallon though. A very clear winning fish for the scape regardless of styles.

I use a simple point and shoot for most pics, but I have higher end stuff but generally rarely use it for aquarium snap shots, which is mostly what I take for post on the web. Higher end pics are worth $, so I do not put them on line generally since a lot of pics are stolen and lifted.

Bump: Here's a point and shot snap shot right after a large rework I did last night:

09-30-2014 05:31 PM

BruceF

I would say that most of the time this tank looks contrived but these last few pictures of the harlequins look quite "natural" at least in a gardening kind of way. Maybe it is just the angle but I like it much better.

09-30-2014 05:17 PM

plantbrain

Fire shrimp really have sustained well in this tank, I broke the tank down about a year ago and redid things, so I was able to remove 100% of all the livestock and added back only the top grades, maybe 50 or so.........they repopulated quick and the group is fairly stable at the higher grades these days.

I never thought I'd see a planted tank with too much color. This tank while epic is on the verge. I don't know. I'm sure it would strike me differently in person. Seeing all at once in a pic is probably very different from in person when you don't focus on the whole thing at once.

I don't think I'm even qualified to critique this though. Can't wait to see what you 'fix'.

Well, the other tanks are much more sublime on the color scale.
I redid the reef filtration so I removed the corals, but that will be gaudy colored also.

So variety basically and different methods. Eventually a Rift cichlid tank will be added.

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